Is Ai Weiwei a Patriot? An Answer from Our Archives

One of the questions I encounter most often about Ai Weiwei, the outspoken artist whom I profiled in the magazine recently, concerns his stance on China. When the question comes from the woolliest corners of the Chinese Web, as it often does, it is framed as an accusation, and a banal one at that. The more interesting version of the question is about the motivation behind his critique: Where does he place his greatest loyalty—in an idea, in the republic, in the Chinese people, or in something else?

I was reminded of that question recently, thanks to a symmetrical bit of history from the archives of The New Yorker. Ai’s father, the famous poet Ai Qing, spent two decades in domestic exile for the things he wrote, tormented by political accusations and reduced to cleaning toilets—an experience that was seared into his son’s memory.

In 1981, Ai Qing was seventy years old, and had been politically rehabilitated for only five years, when he made his first trip to the United States, as part of a small contingent of visiting writers from the People’s Republic, which was still climbing out of the depths of the Cultural Revolution. They visited Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Indiana, California, Washington, D.C., and New York, where they paid a visit to the office of The New Yorker. They were received by E. J. Kahn, who wrote for the magazine for fifty-six years.

In the Talk of the Town that week, Kahn described their visit. Ai Qing was the eldest of the group, which also included the novelist Wang Meng and the translator and editor Feng Yidai. Kahn wrote:

Ai Qing, every inch the Oriental elder, was wearing Chinese cloth shoes and a Chinese suit. We asked the poet what the acceptable term was these days, with the Gang of Four on trial, for a jacket like his—what we Americans had got used to calling a Mao jacket. All smiles vanished. “This was never a Mao jacket,” Ai Qing said after a reflective pause. “I am wearing what has always been a Dr. Sun Yat-sen jacket.”

In the years since his death, Ai Qing’s torment has become a symbol in China for the price of honesty. I often hear Chinese people wonder if Ai Weiwei has been afforded some modest latitude to agitate because some in the leadership still can’t entirely bear to acknowledge the mistreatment of his father. Before they left, Kahn asked his guests about their time in the U.S., and Ai Qing left little doubt about feelings about China:

While they were in New York City, only Feng Yidai found time to look in on Bloomingdale’s big Chinese bazaar. “Too expensive,” he said. “Mostly, we’ve been meeting and eating. My wife told me when I left Peking, ‘When you’re in New York, I hope you smoke less, drink less, and eat fewer sweets.’ I’ve been smoking more and drinking more and eating much ice cream. You have very good ice cream.”

“This is Feng Yidai’s first trip out of China, and already he’s become American,” Ai Qing said. “I’ve been to Western Europe, the Soviet Union, and South America, but I’m still Chinese.” He offered us a strong Chinese cigarette.

“Ai Qing was a great friend of Pablo Neruda, and entertained Neruda three times in China,” Wang Meng said.

“What I like about you Americans is that you’re hardworking, aggressive, and tolerant,” Ai Qing said. “I am impressed that everybody here can study, young or old,” Wang Meng said.

Feng Yidai said, “In a San Francisco discotheque, I met a lady who was studying Chinese, and when I asked her how old she was, she said ‘Eighty-two.’ I was really amazed.” Our visitors conferred in Chinese, and then Feng Yidai said apologetically that they would have to take their leave—they had to get ready for a banquet being given in their honor in Chinatown. We asked as they were departing whether, with a new American President taking office, they anticipated any consequential change in Chinese-American relations.

“Impossible,” Ai Qing said without hesitation. “One or two individuals can’t decide that sort of thing. The trend has been toward friendship, and you can’t stop a trend.”

_Thanks to Jon Michaud for help in finding this artifact, which we’ve made available here (pdf).